Kyudoka[1] no Minyou ~An Archer's Ballad~
"Yoshi, it's my turn!" exclaimed fifteen year-old Shiraishi Kuranosuke as soon as he arrived at a small shooting booth which was a part of the annual spring festival in their district. Shiraishi excitedly took the toy gun and started practicing his aim.
"Shiraishi-chan, we should just leave and eat instead!" complained Shiraishi's companion, Tooyama Kintarou, as the young boy took a seat on the wooden bench situated on the side of the booth. For the young Tooyama, spring festivals were all about food, not games.
"Let's make the most out of our time, Kin-chan." Shiraishi calmly said as he took some spare change from his jeans and handed his payment to the old guy managing the booth.
"But the best way to enjoy festivals is to eat food! Lots of it!" Tooyama said as he frantically gestured to a huge amount of food he wanted to eat. Shiraishi just smiled at the boy as he prepared to shoot some plastic soldiers. When Tooyama finally sensed that he could not convinced the older boy, he stood up and said that they should just meet at the huge food stand, also another of the festival attractions.
While it was true that one of the best things you can find in a local spring festival was food, Shiraishi thought that it was nice to visit every booth and check what each had to offer. He particularly liked game booths, for it reminded him of his childhood. For him, festivals meant that no one was that old to not play games.
Shiraishi was about to step closer and start playing when he noticed a girl beside him, asking the old man for a gun. He was about to pull the trigger of his toy gun when the girl smiled at him and said, casually:
"Let's have a match."
Shiraishi stood straight and looked at the girl who caught his attention. She was wearing a light-colored yukata, and her hair was tied up neatly. She was holding the toy shot gun on her right hand, and on her face, wearing one of the sweetest smiles he had ever seen.
The silver-haired boy smirked. It was weird to see a girl asking for a match. But she looked tough. He would not let his guard down. He smiled at her and extended his hand. "Sure, I'm Shiraishi, third year middle school student at Shitenhouji Chuu. And you are?"
The girl smiled, and then handed some change to the old man. "I'll tell you my name as soon as I lose. But that won't happen."
"You're on." Shiraishi said.
"I'll let you play first." the mysterious girl confidently said, as she took a seat on the wooden bench. She put the gun on her lap and looked at Shiraishi.
"You're really sure that you'll win against me, right?" Shiraishi commented, as he started focusing on the targets. Three trials. If he wins, he'll get a prize. And the girl's name.
The girl didn't reply and just smiled at him. Shiraishi smirked again, and within a couple of seconds, he started firing.
BANG!
One green plastic soldier down.
The girl whistled. "You're good."
BANG!
Another green plastic soldier down.
One more... Shiraishi thought to himself as he focused on a particular target. Just one more...
BANG!
"Tsk, tsk." The girl said, feigning disappointment after seeing that Shiraishi missed his last target. "Too bad."
Shiraishi smiled, seeing how the girl was taunting him. But instead of being angry, he found her... fascinating. He returned the toy gun to the old man and expressed his appreciation.
The girl stood up and positioned herself. Her facial expression changed dramatically, from a sweet, teasing young girl to a serious and focused young woman. A couple of seconds after and she pulled the trigger...
BANG! BANG! BANG!
It was a quick move, and when Shiraishi looked at the booth, there were three blue plastic soldiers already on the floor. He looked at the girl. She was making a "V" sign.
"That's what you call a shooting game."
Shiraishi scratched his head with disbelief, and smiled. "You surprised me there."
The girl handed in the toy gun to the owner and smiled back. "Which means I win, so I don't have to tell you my name."
"That's not fair! You know my name!"
The girl turned her attention at the old owner who asked her which prize she wanted to take home. She took a huge pink bunny stuff toy. She then shook Shiraishi's hand.
"You'll know me soon enough. See you at school!" She waved and then left the booth. Shiraishi was left alone, figuring out what the girl's words meant.
**********
"Geeze, that's embarrassing, Shiraishi," Oshitari Kenya commented after hearing Shiraishi's story. Most of the members of the tennis team, including the newly-recruited Tooyama Kintarou, were inside the tennis club room, changing their clothes before going home.
"Well, at least we know that Shiraishi here has a soft spot for cute girls!" Chimed Hitouji Ryouji and Konjiki Koharu. Who would have thought -- Shiraishi losing against a girl?
"Uh, Shiraishi-senpai is a tennis genius, not a shooting superstar." Sophomore Zaizen Hikaru commented. "There's no reason to expect him to win in a shooting game," he added as he started untying his shoelaces.
Shiraishi sighed. He should have known better. The story was wasted on his joking teammates, or rather; it was so well-received that he was now the center of attention.
"Well... in any case, it was... surreal." Shiraishi said. The boys looked at him, noticing the change of his tone.
"Shiraishi, don't tell me..." Oshitari treaded, carefully.
"Shiraishi-kun is in love!" exclaimed Watanabe Osamu, the middle-age coach suddenly bursting from the club room door. Everyone looked at him with surprise, their faces reflecting the question, "How did we end up having this man as our coach?"
Watanabe went towards Shiraishi and playfully patted his shoulder. "So, Shiraishi, you're attracted to that girl, aren't you, hmmm? And this is exciting! Ah... the feeling of being in love..." Watanabe stood in the middle of the club room, getting the attention of his team.
"We should celebrate! Shiraishi has finally entered an exciting chapter of his youth! Let's eat ramen!"
"Pffftt, just leave it." Shiraishi said after seeing Watanabe's reaction. "I'm not attracted to her. It was just... it was fun meeting her. Anyway, I have to go now. See you guys tomorrow." He said his goodbyes and left the club room.
He heard footsteps as he was walking away from the room. Chitose Senri was following him.
"Coach was right." Chitose said. Shiraishi didn't say anything, and the two boys walked away in silence. As soon as they reached a couple of blocks away from campus, Shiraishi stopped in his tracks and looked at Chitose.
"Heck, yeah. The coach is right."
Chitose smirked upon hearing Shiraishi's words and then tapped his friend's shoulder. "The only thing to do now is to look for her. And I actually have a feeling that I know just where to find her."
**********
"Ah, -san, you did it again!" commented a girl who was wiping her forehead upon seeing a serious-looking girl release her otoya[2] and hit the target. The girl's expression changed quickly after that, looking calm and happy.
"It was a little tough today though. I think I'm not in the right condition." The girl named replied cheerfully. She then stepped back and was about to prepare to go home, when she noticed a couple of her teammates looking at her with admiration. She smiled at them and left the training ground.
was a part of Shitenhouji Chuu's kyudo[3] team. She had been training since she was young, and fell in love with kyudo and archery ever since. There was something about archery that seemed to bring her inner power out in the open. There's that certain feeling within her that comes out everytime the yumi[4] and the ya[5] are on her hands. She has long wanted to uncover this mystery.
's quest for the meaning of her passion for kyudo made her quite a mysterious character in the team. Her fellow students found her charismatic yet enigmatic, and her unexplainable charms drew them to her. was aware of this fact, but she never paid a lot of attention to it... Until she met a particular guy at the local spring festival a couple of days ago. Now she finally understand what it meant to be attracted to a certain person who had an amazing, overwhelming aura that made her want to leave him and go near him at the same time.
As soon as the image of the guy crossed 's mind, a small smile appeared on her lips. As she was preparing to go home, she looked outside the archery club room's window and saw the cherry trees, slightly billowing with the wind, in full fragrant bloom.
It was going to be an interesting season.
**********
"Are you serious?!" Shiraishi Kuranosuke exclaimed after hearing what just Chitose said. The latter gestured to him keep his voice down.
"Well based from your story, there is no doubt that the girl's in this school. The best way to look for her is to check the clubs." Chitose said as he started drinking a small bottle of orange juice.
"But we have lots of clubs! And what if she's a member of let's-go-home club?" Shiraishi asked.
"We'll think about it later. But I already narrowed down the list of possible clubs where she's in." Chitose pulled a small piece of paper and handed it to Shiraishi.
"Let's see... Sewing and Knitting club... Mystery club... Kyudo... Technology and Computers... Drama and Theatre club?"
"You said that as soon as she started shooting, her facial expression changed. I just figured out the clubs wherein high levels of concentration are really needed." Chitose said.
"Yoshi, then I'll get to meet her again soon." Shiraishi told himself. He could not wait to see the girl again, that mysterious girl who had a certain something within her that drew him in.
**********
"I heard that the cute captain of the boys' tennis team is doing rounds on some of the clubs!" One member of the girls' kyudo team blurted while they were practicing after class. just arrived at the training grounds, but she was able to hear what her teammate just said.
"Oh, I know about that! Konjiki-kun's in my class and Shiraishi-san's teammate, and he told me about it. I think Shiraishi-san's looking for a mysterious girl that he met at the spring festival." Another girl commented.
"Wow, don't you think it's romantic?" Another chimed in. Some of the girls giggled.
"I wonder if he's dropping by here." A short-haired girl commented. Again the giggles continued, until they sensed the presence of .
"Ah, -san! Have you heard about it?"
"Uh, ah. Yes, some people are already talking about it." lied. She then took her yumi and started practicing with a rare smile forming on her lips.
**********
"Geeze, I can't believe how news travel so fast!" Konjiki Koharu commented as he hit the ball towards Oshitari Kenya during the team's practice. Oshitari quickly returned the shot. "I heard you're the one who told your classmates about it."
"What? They were the ones asking me about it! I mean, they probably cannot help it, seeing Shiraishi going around the club rooms."
Chitose was sitting on the bench, drinking a bottle of water after his strenuous practice with Tooyama, when he noticed that Shiraishi looked a little restless.
"Shiraishi, just wait, you only have one club room left."
"But I still haven't seen her!" Shiraishi replied, wiping his sweat with his towel. "What if I won't see her again?"
Chitose was about to reply, when they noticed a loud cry from the courts. Shiraishi and the rest of the team went towards where Konjiki and Oshitari were playing. The practice match was interrupted.
"What happened?" Shiraishi asked.
"An arrow hit the tennis ball!" Konjiki exclaimed.
Tooyama picked up the ball, and noticed a small piece of paper wrapped around the ya. "Ah, Shiraishi-chan, there's a message for you!"
The boys looked at Tooyama and the silver-haired boy went towards the freshman and took the piece of paper. There he read the familiar line... the line uttered by the girl that he was looking for.
Shiraishi-kun, let's have a match.
Shiraishi let out a big smile and looked at Chitose. The latter just looked at him and nodded. Shiraishi took this as a sign and rushed towards the gates of the court to meet the person behind the message.
**********
Shiraishi reached the archery training grounds and saw the familiar figure. The girl turned around when she heard the quick footsteps from behind.
"I can see that you brought your own tools." She smiled upon noticing that Shiraishi brought his tennis bag. Shiraishi was startled for a minute, and upon realizing that he did have his tennis bag on his shoulder, he smirked.
"Now that I think about it, it's better for me to have the tennis racquet. At least I can use this if you want another shooting match." He said, as he put down the bag and took the racquet.
smiled and then went towards him. "Uh, actually, there's really no need to take your tennis equipment."
Shiraishi was surprised upon hearing this. "I thought this was a shooting game? Like you against me?"
"Yes, but not exactly the way that you're thinking." said, eyeing him.
"Wait, so we're not going to have an archery-versus-tennis type of match?" He was confused now.
"You're silly," said, amused by Shiraishi's way of thinking. "Let's have a match again at the shooting booth. Today's the last day."
"But I thought-"
"Ah, sorry about that. I figured out that you won't find me if I don't use my ya to send my message." replied. "By the way, I am a kyudo practitioner, if you haven't noticed."
There was a momentary silence between them, until finally Shiraishi decided to speak.
"Uh, so, what are we going to do now?"
"Let's go to the park where the booths are located. And then we eat, and go to the booth, you know, like what we did last time."
"Wait, are you asking me out?" Shiraishi chuckled to hide his embarrassment.
"What, you don't want to?" said, a slight tinge of rose now visible on her cheeks.
"Well, yes, I do, uhm..."
took Shiraishi's hand and look at him. "C'mon. We'd better hurry."
"I don't know your name yet," Shiraishi answered, but let his fingers rest on hers.
let a playful smile. "Then make sure you'll win against me this time."
Shiraishi was caught in awe with her smile, but like he always thought about everything, he would not let his guard down. This time around, he would win the game and take home her heart.
"I'm ready when you are."
##########
September 17, 2006
Written by: Megane-ko
Edited by: linchpin (LOVE IT!)
[1] Person who practices Kyudo.
[2] The "female" arrow, and usually spins counter-clockwise.
[3] Japanese art of archery. It literally means "the way of the bow."
[4] The bow used in Kyudo.
[5] The general term for "arrow".